Illusions
by Kudos4CreamPuffz
Summary: The Arrancar have been defeated, the Bount eliminated, and Soul Society has finially settled down. That is, until a mysterious attacker breaks into Seireitei, murders a high ranking Shinigami, and leaves everything in chaos. RR!


Illusions

(A/N): This takes place after the Arrancar arc, and I don't really know the specifics of who won and stuff, but right now, I'm assuming that the Shinigami have won.

Disclaimer- I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.

_Italicized _thinking of the character.

Prologue, Part 1

Captain Kurotsuchi strode into the lab room, complete with white gloves and coat. _Ah! _The captain thought, _Finally, I get a time to do some real research after that annoying Arrancar war! _He reached into his coat pocket, and fished around for what he came here for. His hands stopped, and he took out a (or at least what seemed like) a folded-up piece of paper. The paper was already crumbling with age, and had mold growing around the edges. It was a rather old piece of paper, but nonetheless useful to Kurotsuchi. With extreme caution, the 12th Division Captain unfolded the piece of paper and started to read:

_Mission Report_

_Status- Completed_

_Date- 3/06/1906 (A/N: ten years from current time line)_

_Injuries- None_

_Description- Low level Hollow appeared near Karakura town. After being vaporized, the human that was the Hollow appeared for a few seconds, and then disappeared. _

The rest of the report was useless to him, but one sentence interested him; "After being vaporized, the human that was the Hollow appeared for a few seconds, and then disappeared."

The captain once again reached into his pocket and this time, took out a small piece of bone. This bone was apparently left behind when the hollow from the mission report was vaporized. Kurotsuchi took it in his hands and carefully examined it, and finally came to the conclusion that it was indeed a piece of a Hollow mask. But why didn't it disintegrate with the rest of the Hollow?_ Unless...no! It couldn't be!_ The captain rushed to his microscope, and re-examined the Hollow piece before him. After a few moments of silence, he sighed. His suspicions were correct. The Hollow bone wasn't just a Hollow bone; it contained large amounts of human cells in it too. In other words, Hollows turn into fully-fledged human beings once they are destroyed.

----

Seijou Rodousha, a Shinigami wall patrol was bored.

For one, his commanding officer had put him on gambling probation, just because he knocked a few guys out, severed a few limbs 'cause he didn't win the game. _I mean really, missing a leg can't be __**that **__bad, can it?_ Seijou sighed. Life was boring as it is, and his officer just **had** to take away his poker chips, the only thing in life that made it at least slightly enjoyable! He went on, rambling in his mind about how he hated him so much, until he heard a small rustling sound in the bushes in front of the walls of Seitrietai, in front of his post.

His body tensed up, and instinctively, his hand flew to his zapakuto's hilt, but it was already too late. A long sword was flung from the bushes and impaled itself within Seijou's chest. Instantly, he felt a blossom of extreme pain throughout his body, originating from his torso. He started to stand, but his knees gave way and he now stood there on his knees. He looked up, and saw a man come out of the foliage. He was rather tall, was clothed in black, tight—fitting pants and a t-shirt that showed off his hardened muscles. He was also wearing a mask, a black semicircle that covered the upper part of the face, with a white line going diagonally across on it. The mysterious man strode over Seijou, glanced at him once, and satisfied that he was close to death; we walked past him and faced the white wall of Seitrietai. Seijou managed to grin._ He might have gotten past me, but he'll never get past Seitrietai's wall. _The black-clothed man muttered something under his breath, and almost instantaneously, Seijou felt an enormous amount of reiastsu being released, originating from a black sheath on the man's belt. Seijou struggled to shift his head toward his attacker, and almost fainted from shock. The air around the mysterious man was practicly shimmering with energy. But the only people that had that amount of sprit energy were the Captains! Once again, the man murmured something and he disappeared. Seijou blinked twice. Was he dreaming? He knew that the man couldn't have run back; at that speed, he would've felt a gust of wind blown into his face. But instead, he felt no wind at all. Could he have gone inside the wall? With no inside help?

'_Who IS he?_

----

Shikaku Zetsumei, studied his surroundings. The white marble of Seitrietai still lightly shone in the dark of the night, but there were already some lights turning on in the sleeping quarters because of the release of his zanpakuto, Setsugai Sendo, now safely confined in its sword form on his belt. _I must hurry. _Suddenly, another black robed person came into view. Shikaku nimbly doged into a dark alleyway, where he could see them, but they would have no idea that Shikaku was there.

The person walked rather clumsily, and was slightly...shaking? _A new recruit. And by the looks of it, looking for a bathroom. This should be quick. _

He flew out of his hiding spot, and stabbed the unfortunate man. The Shinigami still had his eyes open when the blood started flowing from his wound. Shikaku tossed the dead body ontop or Seijou's corpse with disgust.

He glanced around one more time just to make sure no one saw him, and then jumped up onto the blue-tiled roof tops of Seitrietai. Straight ahead, he saw what he came here for, and swiftly flew across the orange tiles to his destination.

---

Captain Kurotsuchi was just in the middle of trying to figure out when, where, and most importantly of all, how, the human cells got into the Hollow bone, when a lowly 12th division shinigami burst into his lab room.

"Captain! I just heard from one of our-" he started.

"What did I tell you about interrupting me in the middle of research?"

"But Seijou, our guard, he-"The man was silenced by a small knife that Kurotsuchi had thrown.

Kurotsuchi was about to continue his work, when he heard a person scream,"Seijou!" The captain could faintly hear some sobbing, but after a few seconds, it was silenced by the sound of a blade being driven into a body, and then followed by an unearthly scream of pain. He sighed once again. _I guess I better go and check it out._ After all, this _Seijou_ had cost him a precious 10 seconds of research. He stood up from his chair and gingerly stepped over dead body in the doorway. He continued to walk outside in to the night when someone teleported behind him and thrust a sword toward his throat. Pure experience allowed him to draw his zanpakuto and blocked it, but the 12th Division Captain whirled around, only to see a dagger flying towards him, and this one was flying at a speed that would make it unavoidable.

_----_

_A few minutes before_

Shikaku hid in the shadows, waiting for an opening. Another inexperienced Shinigami had come to relieve poor Seijou of his guard position, and after seeing the pile of bodies, was now standing paralyzed over his body. His visage changed from surprise to disbelief, then to sorrow, and finially to anger. He started screaming in rage and cursing to avenge his deceased comrade.

Shikaku, watching from the sides, was looking for the perfect time to strike. He saw his moment. The guard was so totally absorbed in fury that he was completely unaware of his surroundings. _Perfect._ Shikaku lunged from his hiding spot in the shadows of an alley, and thrust his zanpakuto into the back of the guard and out through the stomach. Without delay, the relief guard was killed, and his limp body fell with a _thud_ toward the ground as Shikaku pulled his sword out of the lifeless body. Content that his victim was dead, Shikaku moved back to his hiding spot, waiting for more guards to come. But as always, Aizen-sama was right. There were only 3 guards in this time frame, but that didn't mean that he shouldn't hurry up.

Shikaku crouched down on one knee in a dark room, devoid of any light except for the one on Aizen-sama's desk. Shikaku spoke. "You called for me master?"

_"Yes, I did, and I have another job for you. You are to infiltrate Seitrietai and destroy a……..certain piece of evidence," Aizen replied. He then handed Shikaku a small, folded up piece of paper. "I have heard from some of my associates that a Hollow bone tainted with human marrow has been found In Seitrietai. I need you to retrieve it."_

_"Yes master."_

_"Do this quickly and quietly. If you as much cause the slightest disturbance, there will be……consequences."_

_Shikaku shuddered at the word 'consequences.' He got up on his feet and left the room, wondering how one of his bones had gotten into the hands of the Shinigami_

Shikaku leapt across the roof tops of Seitrietai, until he arrived at his target; the looming building of the 12th division. As soon as he came to a stop, a small clown-like man with a large cape that had a '12' imbedded in it had just walked out of the building. Shikaku recognized him at once. On the piece of paper that was given to him by Aizen-sama, it specifically said to eliminate the 12th division captain if he encountered him. No doubt that this was the captain, but Shikaku really wondered if he should confront him in an all out battle. He pondered for a bit, and then came to the conclusion that he should first eliminate the evidence first, then, if clown-man provides to be a nuisance, Shikaku will take care of him.

----

_Present Time_

The dagger buried itself in Kurotsuchi's left arm, causing him extreme pain. He then felt yet _another_ dagger coming at him from the back, so the 12th division captain whirled around and deflected it with his zanpakuto, but because of the speed that the dagger was going, Kurotsuchi was knocked off his feet and onto the ground. He felt a burst of pain on his back, and feebly turned his head toward his attacker. He was a tall, muscular man, with a white mask that look suspiciously like a...hollow mask? _But how could an arrancar get in here?_ Once again, Kurotsuchi felt a burst of pain on his back. He looked up to the smiling face of his attacker, and thought one more thing before he passed out; _Who was he?_


End file.
